Missionary Work: Help or Harm for the Vulnerable?

[Loren Booda]

Will the network of missionaries around the Indian Ocean help those suffering by distribution of materials and counseling, or seize the opportunity to convert the destitute and antagonize indigenous religions?

 

[Evo]

Will the network of missionaries around the Indian Ocean help those suffering by distribution of materials and counseling, or seize the opportunity to convert the destitute and antagonize indigenous religions?

I was thinking about this the other day. Missionaries in Africa and S. America..."look at all the wonderful things I'll give you if you worship my God". Nothing is ever without a price.

 

[member 5645]

Will the network of missionaries around the Indian Ocean help those suffering by distribution of materials and counseling, or seize the opportunity to convert the destitute and antagonize indigenous religions?

Christianity, and other religions, calls for the spread of God's word. If one is to believe in that religion, they are also to believe they are helping by exposing others to the gift that is that religion.

Try taking a more objective view next time. Missionaries don't go to S America and Mexico and say "worship jesus or we won't give you this help". They assist, and take the opportunity to spread, what they consider to be, another gift/aid.

 

[russ_watters]

You don't see the time-share salesmanship tactic, phat? Whether real or just implied, there is the perception of obligation to listen to the missionaries. That's the reason the Peace Corps is anti-religious.

 

[Locrian]

I dunno, what if they did have to listen to missionaries who brought them food and clothing? What small price is that to pay? Yes, I personally might find those who give service without asking anything in return to be more acceptable. However, the fact that there are people out there doing dangerous jobs and providing valuable services for the needy, and expecting only a listening ear in return, seems to me better than not having them.

 

[member 5645]

You don't see the time-share salesmanship tactic, phat? Whether real or just implied, there is the perception of obligation to listen to the missionaries. That's the reason the Peace Corps is anti-religious.

I understand the peace corps wishing to eliminate the potential for such salesmanship interfering with their goals, but it just seems to me (someone who has never been on a missionary trip and probably never will) that it is quite assumptive to say that the aformentioned tactics are used a majority, or even regularly, or the time.

Like I said, it's all about the mindset of those that are making these trips, but I've never been so I am simply trying to keep an objective position here, based on what I know about christianity.

 

[kat]

I understand the peace corps wishing to eliminate the potential for such salesmanship interfering with their goals, but it just seems to me (someone who has never been on a missionary trip and probably never will) that it is quite assumptive to say that the aformentioned tactics are used a majority, or even regularly, or the time.

Like I said, it's all about the mindset of those that are making these trips, but I've never been so I am simply trying to keep an objective position here, based on what I know about christianity.

I think there's a lot of misperceptions about much of humanitarian work done by ministeries. Many have intentionally set up secular branches so as to be able to apply for increased funding from sources that do not allow application from religious sources that proselytize. My in depth experience with a missionary that does a lot of work in south africa is not at all what others on this board apparently consider humanitarian work by many missionaries to be.

 

[Dayle Record]

Someone famous, but out of favor, once stated that, "Religion is the opiate of the masses." I view that we all exchange energies, and some exchanges are more healthy than others. I think that religion is one of the more pervasive addictions. I think that people operate out of terror of punishment, or literally self generated neuro-opiates. They continually self medicate with the concept that they are doing good, they are favored, they are first in line for something better, (heaven, God's favor etc) and there is not much you can do about the spiritual zombies. They might actually do some good, get someone fed or healed, but, unless their faith is healthy, they simply pass along their disease state. This is how spirit works anyway, there is an evolution involved. Our material success is not a blessing from heaven, but a mark of where our interests lie. We are focused on the material, and as a luxury item, once we have consumed many of the world's resources, we go out and do missionary work, to seal the deal.

The west is still the same chauvinistic bunch that colonized, and enslaved in the last three centuries. They have no respect for non-western traditions, and go to proselytize even in Christian areas, that need to be culturally christianised, that need to be of a certain sect to be truly christian.

In the early centuries after Jesus Of Nazareth's "death", there were more christians in India, than anywhere else in the world. They were brown christians (so they didn't count), following the teachings of Timothy, and according to some, the teachings of Jesus himself, who didn't die on the cross, but lived to a ripe old age and fathered many sons, and is buried there. These christians were a nuisance that had to be crusaded against.

The zombie missionaries, are a nuisance, and an insult to the rest of the world. They assume that non western individuals, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, have no spiritual maturity, and are wrong in their faith and need help in matters of spirit. This is just an indicator of how unevolved these missionaries are, spiritually.

They aren't giving, they are being right. They practice a totalitarianism in life that is echoed in their spiritual life, giving an absolute righteousness and authority to punishing spiritual duplicates, of their own pathetic lives.

Tom Delay praying about the Tsunami disaster, spoke that passage of the bible, that talks the foolish man building his house on sand. And that the Lord doesn't hear the cries of some that call him lord. There is a case of spiritual power mongering and corruption, right there.

I think that the world may learn what giving is truly about, in aftermath of this disaster, because we have plenty more just like that one, on the way. It is my hope that we can rise above our little pale walls, and connect, because it is the way that we will survive as a species, when much worse things occur.

 

[Loren Booda]

There are other vulnerabilities, child sexual slavery and false charities among them, that are being generated by this tragedy. What effective ways are there for us to act against them?

It is a pity that we Americans find more important waging war than helping ease human pain. Also, remember the Africa regularly loses just as many lives due to preventable causes in a matter of weeks than all who died in the tsunami.

 

[Locrian]

That depends on how you define preventable. Tens of thousands of people die in africa every year of causes that seem easy to fix. However, it is worth noting that numerous attempts at fixing these problems have failed miserably.

 

[jammieg]

That's an interesting way of putting it Dayle Record, it would be nice I hope if everyone believed in letting people believe what they want to believe, but then that opiate he talked about I wonder if it has any connection to controlling others even if "for good"...the most addictive substance in the world could also be the least noticable.

 

[member 5645]

The zombie missionaries, are a nuisance, and an insult to the rest of the world. They assume that non western individuals, Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhists, have no spiritual maturity, and are wrong in their faith and need help in matters of spirit. This is just an indicator of how unevolved these missionaries are, spiritually.

That isn't just an indicator, it's standard cliche rhetoric from someone who is obviously anti-religion. Please show me your evidence that many/most missionaries believe this, and not that they are doing as I said in my previous posts.

 

[Dayle Record]

I was in California on a visit. Entering the public library, I saw a couple of Mormon Missionaries. I laughed involuntarily and said "Hi" to them. I greeted them and told them I am from Salt Lake. One looked wistful, and homesick and he told me that he is from Sandy, which is in the South Salt Lake Valley. The other one asked me how long I had lived in Salt Lake, and I said 40 years. He asked if I belonged to the church and I said no. He asked me how I could have lived there among them so long and never received the blessings of the gospel? And I told him, it is because I am a Buddhist. He couldn't muster another word. But we parted smiling, and went our very separate ways. I am not anti religion.

 

[member 5645]

I was in California on a visit. Entering the public library, I saw a couple of Mormon Missionaries. I laughed involuntarily and said "Hi" to them. I greeted them and told them I am from Salt Lake. One looked wistful, and homesick and he told me that he is from Sandy, which is in the South Salt Lake Valley. The other one asked me how long I had lived in Salt Lake, and I said 40 years. He asked if I belonged to the church and I said no. He asked me how I could have lived there among them so long and never received the blessings of the gospel? And I told him, it is because I am a Buddhist. He couldn't muster another word. But we parted smiling, and went our very separate ways. I am not anti religion.

You still haven't addressed my main point...
Or are you going to now tell me that "zombie missionaries" was a specific reference to a sub sect of missionaries, and not a deragatory term form missionaries in general?

 

[the number 42]

A BBC World Service story the other day told of how there are so few priests left in France that Christian missionaries from Africa are being drafted to tend to le flock. 'What goes around, comes around' (or is that Hinduism?).

 

[Dayle Record]

I believe that Missionary work, is evil. I think that the claim to a superior relationship with a higher power, or a superior method of relating, or a favored status with a higher power, is delusional nonsense. When these delusions are coupled with cloying "help", in exchange for spiritual submission, out of dire need, well, if there were a devil, then this would be the devil's work.

I will admit that delusional is somewhat off from zombie, in the milder cases.